Melting ice will loose highly toxic chemicals

Some of the most dangerous pollutants we know, called persistent organic pollutants, have been frozen in the Arctic tundra and ices caps since they were banned in the U.S. in 1979 and internationally in 2001. But climate change is bringing the return of the repressed, according to a new study in the journal Nature Climate Change.

NASA

POP exposure causes a range of health effects, potentially affecting the endocrine, reproductive, immune and nervous systems. It causes cancer and can cause death outright.

The class of chemicals — which includes DDT, agent orange, PCBs and brominated flame retardants — remain volatile for decades before they break down. They often settle into cold soils or freeze under ice caps.

But as ice caps melt and Arctic soil warms, the chemicals are again being released into the atmosphere.

The scientists who published the recent study had their interest piqued by localized spikes in POP levels nearly a decade after the chemicals had been banned. They eventually concluded that warmer temperatures were “uncapping” the toxics. “A wide range of POPs,” they write, “have been remobilized into the Arctic atmosphere over the past two decades as a result of climate change.”

The study didn’t look forward to predict exposure levels as the planet heats up, but it suggests “significant” levels that “could be disastrous for wildlife and human health.”